Heart Puppeteer
by thelilacfield
Summary: During adolescence, the name of your soulmate appears on your hipbone. Blaine has waited nine years to find out who Lady Fate has chosen for him to spend the rest of his life with. However, when his soulmate turns out to be his competitive rival, Kurt Hummel, it will be a great work to fall in love with him.
1. Part One

This was originally written for a prompt on the glee-kink-meme. Link to the prompt can be found on my tumblr at **dreamonlittledarling**.

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Heart Puppeteer

Part One

Since his eighth birthday, Blaine had been preparing for the day when his mark would appear. The name of his soulmate, the one person who would be a perfect match for him in every way, from intellectual to sexual. A faceless man with a smile that could light up the world when his eyes rested on Blaine, the person Blaine was destined to spend the rest of his life with.

He was twelve when he found out that having the name of your soulmate on your hip didn't always equal a happy ever after. For some, those endings didn't, couldn't exist. Just because someone was your soulmate didn't mean you were theirs. He hoped every day that such a thing would never happen to him, especially after hearing his Aunt Fiona's tragic story. Her soulmate had never had her name tattooed into his skin, and one day had run off with the woman who was destined to spend eternity at his side, leaving her to fall into a decline and never seek out love.

When he was fourteen, names began to appear on his classmates and friends, people proudly flaunting names on their hipbones, showing off and talking about how they would meet the one they were destined to be with, how it would happen, how they would be together until the end of time. However, no name appeared on his skin, not even the slight red rash that preceded the carving of the cursive into his skin.

He thought about this man who would be his, wondered what his name would be and what he would look like and how he would treat Blaine, late at night, when darkness encircled the world and made everything secretive. Many nights were spent alone in his bed, breathing coming faster and heart speeding up and skin heating in a flush to phantom thoughts of hands on his skin and whispers in his ear, his name falling from another's lips like a benediction.

It was a wonderful occasion when he was seventeen and woke up one morning in early February, rain pattering against the window of his dormitory room, to feel the itching sensation around his hip he'd long dreamt of. He leapt out of bed and grabbed the hem of his tank top, yanking it up to see the skin stretched over his right hipbone stained an ugly blotchy red, several dark lines already appearing on the skin. There was definitely a _H_, and what appeared to be the start of a _K_.

Blaine kept the knowledge to himself all day, hiding the precious secret beneath the shirt and Dalton blazer, grinning to himself through every lesson and periodically running his fingers across the spot as the itching grew worse, the discomfort barely noticeable in the face of his utter joy that he would finally know his soulmate. After three years of saving himself, saving a first kiss and a first time and a first boyfriend for the faceless man he'd imagined between sheets, he would finally know what it was to be marked and matched.

He was so eager to check the progress of the name tattooing itself into his skin that he didn't even pause at the end of the day to talk about setlist choices with Wes and David and once again argue with them that he, not Kurt, should be given the solo. He simply ran back up the stairs to his room, flinging his satchel aside and nearly tearing buttons in his haste to get out of his blazer and his shirt and see the name of his soulmate.

But what he saw made him stop and stare, run his fingers across the name now permanently branded into his hip, finding the skin no longer blotchy but instead smooth and perfect, the name inky black.

_Kurt Hummel._

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Any questions can be directed to my tumblr, **dreamonlittledarling**.

Hope you enjoyed, and, if you did, please let me know! :)


	2. Part Two

This was originally written for a prompt on the glee-kink-meme. Link to the prompt can be found on my tumblr at **dreamonlittledarling.**

The prompts asks for Kurt and Blaine to be at the same school and I picked Dalton because Warblers. 'Nough said.

Thank you to everyone who's already read or reviewed or favourited or alerted. I realise I accidentally listed this as complete when I posted Part One: to make it clear, this is a working progress of a fic and will probably end up quite long because I'm writing.

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Heart Puppeteer

Part Two

"Blaine _was_ our lead soloist but his performances are getting tired and his range is nowhere near as impressive-"

"But _Blaine_ is a crowd pleaser and presents a friendly figurehead for both boys and girls to idolise and adore-"

"But _Kurt_ is our first countertenor since 1963 and we should make use of the amazing voice we're lucky to have in our midst…"

Blaine sank into the sofa, glaring across the room at his only rival for the competition solos. Kurt met his eyes for a moment before turning back to Nick and Jeff, face set in a haughty mask.

As a reflex, the way he had at least fifty times a day when there was a lull in the buzz of activity around him, Blaine ran the tips of his fingers over his shirt, where the name painted into his hip hid beneath the white material. _Kurt Hummel._

_Kurt Hummel._

_Kurt Anderson._

_Blaine Hummel._

It was what it would work out to be. Kurt Hummel, Blaine's rival, the man who hated him with every fibre of his being as Blaine hated him, was his soulmate. Lady Fate had created a disaster with their match. Assuming Kurt had been marked for him, they were destined to spend the rest of their lives together. To fall in love.

When Blaine had imagined his soulmate, it would be stupid to say little pieces of all the men he found attractive hadn't crept into the image in his head. And he had once found Kurt attractive. Still did, if he was going to be perfectly honest with himself. And yes, on one or two occasions of poor judgement he had fantasised about kissing the man, wondered what he would sound like and how he would react.

But those were dreams and this was reality, the world of show choir and their mutual enmity and rivalry within the Warblers. If Kurt had never shown up, Blaine would still be the undisputed lead of the Warblers. He tried to be a team player, he really did, but there was only so many insults and cold glares even the most refined gentleman could take.

As far as Blaine was concerned, Kurt Hummel was the enemy. But now, as the name on his skin dictated, his enemy was also his soulmate. The one person perfect for him, emotionally, physically, intellectually and sexually.

He tried to imagine kissing Kurt. He watched him across the room, the contemplative tilt of his head, the passion reflected in his eyes, the tiny triumphant smirk on his lips as he listened to David exclaiming over his talent. How would he look when Blaine kissed him?

Blaine's eyes drifted half-closed, the arguing of Wes and David and the sudden shouts every time another member of the group added their opinion to the debate fading into the background, a faint drone melting away in the face of his fantasy world.

Kurt would smile, a real smile that showed off his teeth and lit up his whole being, eyes shining with love. His fingers would be soft and pleasantly cool on overheated skin when he brushed a curl back from Blaine's forehead, smiling into his eyes. They'd kiss slowly until their lips were sore. Blaine imagined soft sighs from Kurt's lips, a gentle admittance of love as they drew apart and curled around each other, falling asleep with the scent of them and us hanging on the air.

Or they would be fuelled by lust and pure, unadulterated hatred for each other, teeth clashing and tongues duelling fiercely as clothes were torn from bodies and raised pink lines carved into wanting flesh. Blaine imagined those long legs, too beautiful to be covered by the cheap grey material of the issued uniform trousers, threshing in ecstasy while the haughty expression and the set mouth remained stoic, unchanged.

"Meeting dismissed!" The sharp crack of Wes slamming his gavel down brought Blaine back into reality with an unceremonious bump. Which was when he became conscious of his growing problem, and also that he had been staring at Kurt, while fantasising about him.

Without looking at anyone, he stood up and ran, somewhat clumsily, from the crowds and up to his room, slamming the door shut behind him and leaning gratefully against the wood as he slid a hand below the waistband of his trousers.

It had been less than a day, and this was already getting out of hand.

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Hope you enjoyed, and, if you did, please let me know! :)

Any questions can be directed to my tumblr, **dreamonlittledarling**. If you're posting about this fic on tumblr, please tag it with **dreamonlittledarling **or **heart puppeteer** so I'll see it and can appropriately love you forever!


	3. Part Three

This was originally written for a prompt on the glee-kink-meme. Link to the prompt can be found on my tumblr at **dreamonlittledarling.**

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Heart Puppeteer

Part Three

A thud resounded through the room, echoing off the papered walls, when Blaine slammed Kurt back into the door, Kurt's hands scratching up his back, as they kissed, a ferocious passion sizzling between them as their tongues duelled for dominance, and Blaine pressed his hips forward, hard, pinning Kurt to the door, grabbing Kurt's wrists and raising his hands above his head, pressing them into the door, dominating their kiss effortlessly.

Kurt whined into Blaine's mouth, nails scraping against the wood as his fingers scrabbled ineffectually for something to cling on to, an anchor to reality. His erection was pressed heavy into Blaine's thigh, hot and thick even through their clothes. "Please," he whispered with bruised, swollen lips as Blaine left his mouth, scraping his teeth along Kurt's jaw, leaving a trail of red marks in his wake, "_please_, I want you so bad."

There was nothing gentle about Blaine's movements as he released his grip on Kurt's crossed wrists and trailed his hands down Kurt's back, pausing to roughly knead his ass before grabbing his tight and hitching Kurt's legs around his waist. Later, there would be time for slow and sweet, for loving words exchanged between gentle kisses, for eyes holding a gaze that said more than words ever could, for hands to wander in luxurious slowness with a true tender appreciation for the other's body. But, for now, what Blaine wanted was to hear Kurt groaning wildly into his mouth, to feel his strong thighs shifting intoxicatingly against Blaine's sides as he thrust himself down onto Blaine, to watch him ride the hard, hot bulge of Blaine's clothed cock pressed against him.

"Clothes," Kurt panted, hand twisting in Blaine's hair so hard it should've been painful, but Blaine didn't feel a thing past Kurt, pressed up against every inch of him. "Come on, Blaine, take your damn clothes off and _fuck me_."

Buttons popped off, rattling across the polished wood as blazers were tugged from broad shoulders, ties were yanked off with barely a thought and shirts were torn from quivering, flushed bodies, almost all without their lips breaking contact. "Come on, _please_, Blaine," Kurt whispered, words turning to a hissed moan as Blaine's hands roamed over his chest, pausing to pay attention to his tightening nipples. "Get me naked, please, I need you."

"_Blaine, please…__**fuck me**_."

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Blaine jerked awake with a moan that reverberated around his bedroom, hips arching off the bed as he came. When he fell back into the mattress, the bedsprings creaking out in protest of his sudden movement, he realised what had happened. What he'd dreamt of.

_Oh God, I'm fucked._

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Yes, that was a dream. Sorry to disappoint you all, lovelies ;)

Hope you enjoyed, and please let me know if you did :)


	4. Part Four

I've had requests for longer chapters, and I'm afraid I should tell you all that I very much doubt this story is going to be very long. Ten chapter, I'm predicting.

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Heart Puppeteer

Part Four

"Jeff Duval!" Mrs. Crowe shouted, her voice booming out across the rows of shelves. "Your copy of _The Picture of Dorian Grey _was due back to me a month ago!"

"Shoot!" Jeff exclaimed, ducking behind the _INFORMATIVE, Q-T _shelves. "See, _she _is the reason I didn't want to come with you. Have you found that damn book yet?" Blaine ignored his friends complaints, continuing to search the shelves for the volume he was looking for, running his fingers along the multi-coloured spines of the books to ensure he didn't overlook the one he sought.

Finally, he found the thick black and yellow volume, its pages yellowing and creased from all the times an apprehensive adolescent had looked over the words, learning the lore of their new mark with an open and inquisitive mind: _Soulmates for Dummies_. It wasn't the most self-esteem raising title, but the book had always been regarded as the definitive guide for nervous, newly-marked teenagers to learn of their destiny, the effects the name branded into their skin could have on their mind and their heart and their soul.

Two minutes later found Blaine in his room, feet up on the bed and book balanced carefully on his thighs, skimming the introduction to find the contents, flipping the book to find the chapter entitled _After Meeting Your Soulmate._

'_The meeting of your soulmate opens many opportunities, and it is only natural for your body to want more with your soulmate. If you body does not receive the physical intimacy it instinctually craves, this want will manifest itself in vivid fantasies, both while awake and asleep. These fantasies can be fuelled by many things, from seeing the person to hearing them speak. It can become very difficult, in some cases, to keep your eyes off your soulmate, even in a crowded room.'_

Even the short passage answered a wealth of questions that had been chasing each other around Blaine's head. The dreams had become increasingly problematic over the past few days, far from decreasing in intensity over time. Rather, each dream had been more vivid and pushed more boundaries than the previous, and had begun leaking into his waking life, where the barest glimpse of Kurt's hand adjusting his bag strap had brought the images of last night's dream flooding back to his mind, the false memory of those long fingers wrapped around his cock dancing in the forefront of his mind.

"Blaine!" A shout from the doorway jerked him back into reality as those imagined soft, needy noises crept into his mind, beating in his ears like a pulse. He snapped the book shut, throwing it onto his bed and turning to see Wes in the doorway, arms folded and foot tapping suggestively against the floor. "You coming down for dinner?"

Blaine stood up, adjusted the tie hanging loose around his neck, to rolled eyes from Wes, and followed his friend from the room and down to the dining room, determined that he would not chance ever-longer glances at Kurt throughout the meal. Today, he would not be distracted by thick brown hair that had felt so soft wrapped around his dream self's fingers or pale hands that had glided over his skin or pink lips that had been pressed fervently against his. Because those had been dreams, and the memories were not real.

"Blaine Anderson!" Blaine closed his eyes, but could feel a thousand people turn to stare at him the second he put one foot in the dining room and a shriek echoed off the walls. "Don't you dare ignore me! Why have you been staring at me in every lesson?"

Before Blaine could get a chance to respond, he opened his eyes to see a hurricane of a furious Kurt Hummel storming towards him and still yelling, "I am not a piece of meat, Anderson. I'm not some piece of ass for you to stare at and fantasise about. Stop staring or I will make sure you never see the light of day again!"

"Kurt, it's not my fault," Blaine replied quietly, desperately hoping to get the attention off him and Kurt. "I can't help staring at you, it's a side effect of things I'm going through so please don't yell at me right now. If you must, can't we take this some place quieter?"

"What, so you can jump me and convince me to give your sorry ass a pity fuck?!" There were grins coming from around the room as the entire audience waited on the edge of their seats to see how the fight would end, all hoping for the inevitable terrifying explosion of built-up tempers. "What sort of situation has the side effect of making you stare at me like you want to eat me?"

"Kurt, I-"

"Tell me, Anderson. Because, believe me, I would very much like to know, and I believe everyone else in this room would too!"

"Kurt, I…you're my soulmate."

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Evil cliffhanger! The author gets to do those things, you know.

Hope you enjoyed and if you did, please let me know! :)


	5. Part Five

Heart Puppeteer

Part Five

Kurt scoffed derisively. "Really, Anderson? You'd try to mess with me by pretending you've been Marked? With _my _name? Maybe you could fool others with that little trick, but it won't work on me. I'm smarter than that."

"I'm not lying, it's the truth!" Blaine exclaimed, feeling more than a little offended that anyone could think he would lie about something as colossally life-changing as being Marked. "My Mark appeared a few days ago and it's your name. Believe me, I was not expecting it to be you."

"Prove it!" Kurt demanded. "Go on, if you got your mark, show me! Show the whole room that you're a dirty liar who can't be trusted!"

Blaine's hand slowly moved to untuck his shirt, pulling it up to expose his hip, the lines of Kurt's name dark against his skin. "Really, Anderson?" Kurt asked haughtily. "Did you write that there, just to play with my emotions? How far are you going to take this stupid joke?! If I touch that, it'll smear, because that isn't your Mark!"

Kurt's fingers stretched out towards Blaine, to touch the etching of his name tattooed into Blaine's skin. The moment Blaine felt Kurt's skin against his, the tip of Kurt's finger tracing the whorls of his name, he gasped out loud, eyes rolling back in his head. Nothing he'd read had ever warned of the intensity a single touch could hold, and he barely remembered reading on how it would feel for a soulmate to touch their own name on his skin as his head swam, his vision clouding black.

"Blaine!" The cry of one of his friends was distant, like a radio with bad reception or someone calling from solid ground while he sank beneath the waves. He reached out desperately, grabbed a hand that felt as it had in false memories.

"Kurt…" The single word was the last sound to leave his lips before the ground rushed up towards him and he was swallowed by blackness.

He awoke in a room he didn't recognise, surrounded by blank, floating white, smooth sheets itchy against his skin. He heard voices from outside, and tried hard to listen through the odd ringing sound in his ears.

"Can I see him?"

"He's right in there, but I warn you, he hasn't woken up yet-"

"I'll say something if he wakes up, I just want to talk to him."

"Fine. Go right in, Mr. Hummel."

As the door was pushed open, Blaine tried to sit up only to be met by a hand on his chest, pushing him back down. "Don't move," came a soft command. "We don't know how hard you hit your head when you went down. You've been out for nearly an hour. Your friends are all going insane."

"Why not let them in, then?" Blaine asked, staring narrow-eyed up at Kurt. "Why come in yourself to check up on me when you could send someone who actually likes me to do your dirty work?"

"Because, if the fact that you fainted when I touched that stupid Mark is any indication, we're soulmates," Kurt answered with an emphatic roll of his eyes. "And I believe it's the duty of soulmates to check up on each other when they've fainted and ended up with the nurse."

"You might not be my soulmate," Blaine said bitterly. "Then you would be relieved of your duties, seeing as you obviously don't want to be here."

"Yes, people don't always have to be Marked for each other," Kurt observed astutely, "good job on knowing the worst possible outcome of being Marked. But the likelihood is that, when I get my Mark, it'll be your name. And we have to figure out what's going to happen."

"I hate you," Blaine murmured, but there was no vigour or force behind the words. "Why did it have to be you?"

"I'm kind of glad it was you," Kurt said lightly. "What would be the point of having a soulmate you loved from the start? Might as well be someone I hate." He sat down on the chair next to Blaine's head, biting his lip. "I've been doing some reading and the…um, the book said that after you meet your soulmate, you'll always want more, and, if you don't get it, you can have…_those _kind of dreams."

"Kurt, what are you saying?" Blaine asked, enjoying seeing Kurt Hummel, usually so put-together and prepared with a wicked comeback in any given situation, stuttering and fumbling his way around the words.

"Have you been having…_sex _dreams about me?" As soon as the sentence left his lips, Kurt blushed brighter than Blaine had ever thought he could.

"_Kurt_, you're _blushing_," he said softly, grinning and determinedly biting back laughter.

"_Blaine_, you're _flirting_," Kurt mimicked, nervously smoothing his hair. "But you're not answering my questions. Have you been having…_dreams_? And what was happening in them? Like, in the dreams."

After a long moment of awkward silence, tension thick in the air, Blaine finally replied with a quiet, "Yes, I've had a few dreams. And, if you really want to know what was happening in them, it honestly means nothing to how we are when I'm awake, okay? But, I've had dreams about us kissing, and you touching me and vice versa, and a couple of nights ago there was one about you blowing me."

"Oh _God_," Kurt groaned, dropping his head into his hands, but not before Blaine saw that his blush hadn't faded. Far from it, his blush had grown impossibly darker at Blaine's words. "B-but…what do I do? In the dreams."

"Well, mostly, you just _want _me," Blaine said frankly, chuckling softly as Kurt ducked his head in embarrassment. "But I know it probably wouldn't really be that way, if we ever did get to the stage, and I don't want you to feel pressured because of my dreams, so just-"

"Sit up." Kurt's demand was quiet, but authoritative, and Blaine found himself obeying without a second thought. Kurt shifted closer, eyes darting around the room as if looking for some way to escape. "Okay…I'm just going to kiss you. Just to see what it's like. So…don't freak out. Please."

"I would never," Blaine promised, heart pounding in delicious anticipation as Kurt leaned closer, licking his lips nervously.

The moment Kurt's lips tentatively touched his, Blaine's reaction was as instant and intense as his reaction to Kurt touching his name on Blaine's hip. Within a bare second, he wanted more, wanted everything, wanted to make this Kurt who was warm and solid and really here, really kissing him, make him groan and gasp and whimper as he had in those wonderful dreams. It took all of his self-control to keep his mind from drifting to the ideas of far dirtier things they could do in the bed he lay in and keep his mental faculties about him to kiss back, trying to show Kurt exactly what he could do, how much passion he had locked away, pressing closer and trying to feel every inch of Kurt's mouth against his own, cupping his face gently between his hands.

Kurt pulled back slowly, his eyes mesmerizing as they fluttered slowly open, a tiny smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Blaine smiled back, lowering his hands from Kurt's face. "Um…_wow_," he breathed. "That was…interesting."

"Get back here, I am not done with you yet," Kurt ordered. Surprised by the authority in his voice, Blaine was struck dumb for a moment before Kurt's mouth was back on his, hot and somehow already familiar.

The kiss increased in passion, their mutual hate for each other only adding fire to the flames. Blaine had never dreamt a single kiss could be so potent, groans escaping his lips at Kurt's touch, an embarrassingly loud moan reverberating around the room when Kurt climbed from the chair into his lap, his lips on Blaine's neck. Testing the waters, Blaine rolled his hips up slightly into their kiss and heard Kurt moan loudly before he was gone.

"Don't…don't you _dare _tell anyone about this," Kurt said shakily. "I'll see you later, Blaine." He shouldered his bag and fled the room, leaving Blaine more confused than before, and a little hurt.

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Hope you enjoyed, and please let me know if you did! :)


	6. Part Six

Heart Puppeteer

Part Six

The next few days almost blurred into one, filled with extra rehearsals and setlist meetings and shouting down arguments in the choir room. With Regionals a month away, Wes and David and Thad have started getting anxious and are constantly calling meetings, whether of the entire group or the experienced Warblers and sometimes just the two they were considering for lead soloists - Blaine and Kurt.

Those meetings were the worst. While Wes, David and Thad talked over song choices and expounded on the merits of their voices, stage presence, dance moves, charisma, anything and everything that could be considered in the running for a show choir conversation, Blaine watched Kurt. And Kurt firmly ignored him. He kept his eyes focused on the wall, like the panelling was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen.

Blaine had been lost since Kurt had kissed him with so much passion, making his heart beat too fast and his entire body crave more, and walked out without a word, leaving him alone.

It hurt. Kurt was supposed to be his soulmate, supposed to be the one person in the world perfect for him in every way, and yet he was ignoring him. Kurt didn't want to be with him, he'd made that much clear. But all Blaine wanted was Kurt. His mind, his body, his very soul needed to be with Kurt, needed to feel him, to be joined with him in the way he would only ever be joined with his soulmate.

In a full Warbler choir meeting, while Trent argued loudly over Thad about song choices for Regionals, Blaine stared at Kurt from his usual seat, drifting away from the leather seats and the dull monotone of debating voices to a land of daydreams.

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"I am _so_ glad your parents are out so often," Kurt murmured as Blaine kissed wetly down his neck, his fingers clenching involuntarily where they were pressed against Blaine's back. "Should we move to your bed or something?"

"If you're distracted enough to think about my parents, or about moving, then clearly I'm not doing my job," Blaine murmured into Kurt's neck, slipping one hand out from beneath the hem of his shirt and skimming downwards, over Kurt's hip and thigh to slowly palm his cock through his jeans.

"_Ohh_…_Blaine_." Kurt's fingers clenched through the fabric of Blaine's shirt, hips pushing up against him, eyes dark with want. "Kiss me. But don't stop, please don't stop."

When Blaine connected their lips it was sloppy and clumsy, Kurt moaning and gasping raggedly into their kiss more often than not, but it was still hot and perfect, the heat closing around them as everything but hands running over wanting bodies and lips pressed to the most sensitive spots ceased to exist. "Blaine, please, I'm so _close_," Kurt whispered, legs hooked around Blaine's waist, heels pressing into his ass.

"Kurt, _come on_. Come for me."

* * *

"…and, as I was saying, a duet could give us the edge at Regionals for choosing a more risky set list-"

"A _duet_?!" Kurt's shriek brought Blaine back to the choir room with an unceremonious bump. He blinked around the room to see Kurt on his feet, staring in shock at the council. "I am not singing a duet with _him_!"

"Kurt, the council controls the setlist and who sings what," Wes said icily, and Blaine wanted to reach out and pull Kurt back, tell him not to oppose the council on any issue. "And, in light of recent events, we've decided to try your voices together. Having considered it carefully, we'd like to try having you sing a duet as it could really boost our chances at Regionals. Don't you want to win?"

"Of course I do, but not if I have to sing with Blaine!" Kurt shouted, slamming his hands down onto the table. Blaine couldn't help but smile a little at the use of first name. It was small change, but ultimately a huge one for their relationship. "Just because he's got my name on his hip doesn't mean I have to like him."

"The hickey Blaine thinks his collar hides would say otherwise," Jeff mumbled to Blaine's right.

Kurt rounded on him. "And what's that supposed to mean, that I'm secretly having sex with him?" Even when he blushed just speaking those words, no one laughed. An angry Kurt Hummel was not something anyone wanted to be faced with. "And even if I was, it's none of your business. It's none of any of your businesses!"

Wes smacked his gavel down firmly, the bang echoing around the room and making those with glazed eyes who hadn't been concentrating start violently. "Enough, Kurt! You and Blaine will sing a duet tomorrow when the girls from Crawford come to view our performance and the council's word is final! Warblers dismissed."

Hoisting his bag over his shoulder, Blaine hurried after Kurt as the scowling boy stormed out of the room. "Kurt! Shouldn't we practise our duet for tomorrow?" When he reached out to take Kurt's hand or his shoulder, hold him still for just a moment, Kurt slapped his hand away with a growl.

"Don't touch me," he spat, and walked away, leaving Blaine alone and lost, the shell of a boy who'd once thought he'd find happiness with a soulmate and now stood trying to hold the pieces of a broken heart together.

* * *

Blaine returned to his room, after rejecting at least five Crawford girls and resisting the urge to punch or shove those fawning over Kurt, in a decidedly sour mood. And so much of it was to do with Kurt and how damn irresistible he had looked dancing on that scaffolding while the girls squealed and batted their eyelashes. What gave him the right to make Blaine fall for him, to reject him and then to sing lyrics about sex and want at him right at a time when Blaine was attempting to accept the fact that his soulmate didn't want a future with him?

Throwing his blazer and tie haphazardly across the room with a growl of frustration, Blaine headed into his bathroom for a shower. He turned the knob and waited for the water to start, contemplating whether to go for cold or scald away the anger clinging to his skin like silk. But instead of water, there came only a clattering noise and a small cloud of dust.

Blaine growled again, slamming his fist against the door before an idea came to mind. An idea, no doubt, developed by the less dapper, composed side of his mind. The side that thought only about sex, and came out to play in the middle of the night and awake him with dreams of an innocently tilted head, lust-filled eyes and wet, swollen lips. A smirk twisted his lips as he grabbed up his shower gel, shampoo, comb and towel, adding boxers and a faded Dalton T-shirt to the pile after a moment in case his plan didn't work out and heading down the corridor to Kurt's room, ignoring the several doors he passed between him and his goal.

"Kurt?" he asked, knocking softly as he opened the door. "Can I use your shower? Mine decided to inconveniently break, and I need to wash the gel out."

"Fine, but only because your hairstyle in a crime against nature," Kurt conceded in a bored monotone. Looking up, Blaine found him lounging across his bed on his stomach, engrossed in a thick French textbook. Even better.

He left his clothes on the floor by the door and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it tight, breathing out heavily as he sagged against it. Was he really going to do this? Use his body to his advantage, to reel in his soulmate?

One look back to the door, one image of Kurt spread out and begging beneath him, decided his fate. With a smirk on his face, he climbed into the shower where Kurt was every day and turned the temperature up as high as he could stand, washing away the anger and the hurt. And his morals to boot.

"Hey, Kurt, did I leave my clothes in here?" he asked, emerging from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, towel wrapped loosely around his hips. No one could miss the way Kurt's eyes ran over him, drinking him in, before he jerked himself back to reality and looked away.

"I don't think so, guess you'll have to run back to your room in a towel," he replied coolly, turning back to his textbook. But Blaine didn't miss the two spots of colour high in his cheeks and crept closer, crowning into Kurt's space. Kurt looked up, licked his lips before he determinedly dragged his eyes away and back down to the words on a page Blaine didn't understand. "Blaine, _go_."

"You don't want me to leave," Blaine whispered, not missing the way Kurt shuddered at his words. "You want me, Kurt. I saw it in your eyes when we were singing today. And I want you to know…I meant every word of those words I sang to you."

Kurt groaned and the textbook hit the floor with a heavy thud as he tossed it aside and grabbed Blaine by the shoulders, tugging him down onto the bed and kissing him hungrily. Blaine moaned loudly into Kurt's mouth, that same hot intensity shooting through his entire body, shocking him to his core as Kurt's fingers found the tucked-in edge of his towel and pulled it away, so Blaine was completely naked in the room of his soulmate, pressed up against him, finally getting the more his body craved.

"Door," Kurt ordered, pulling away and pushing Blaine up. "Lock my door. Then get back over here. I…" The tips of his ears turned red, but he didn't break eye contact with Blaine as he whispered, "I'm going to make you c-come."

Blaine groaned at Kurt's words, freezing stupidly for a moment before scrambling to slide the silver bolt across, jiggling the door handle for good measure to check. He didn't even need to cross the room again, because Kurt was on him as soon as he was reassured that no one could walk in on them, the rough material of his clothes too much against Blaine's bare, scrubbed-raw skin, but the friction perfect.

"Kurt, _please_." In his fantasies, Blaine never begged. Kurt was always the one begging, always hungry for him, and Blaine was the one in control. But he couldn't pretend that it wasn't hot and perfect and making his stomach twist up hotly with sheer want, Kurt's hips grinding in perfect circles against his thigh, pressing the obvious long, hard shape of his cock against Blaine, Kurt's desperate little breaths in his ear as he kissed down Blaine's neck, one hand smoothing down his side, fingers dancing expertly over Blaine's skin, driving him utterly to heaven.

"Kurt, please, touch me, I need it," Blaine begged shamelessly, his hands clenching on Kurt's hips, probably hard enough to bruise through just his shirt, trying to pull him closer, find the perfect friction to get off against his hip or his thigh or his cock.

"So soon?" Kurt asked, and his voice was a low purr that made Blaine groan loud enough that the whole school could probably hear him, trying to pull Kurt closer. "I suppose I did read that sex with your soulmate is incredibly intense." He held Blaine's gaze as he whispered, "I can't wait to feel it too," before moving his hand those last few vital inches to wrap around Blaine's cock.

Blaine threw his hand back against the door, his hips jerking forward involuntarily, his breath coming in short gasps. "I'm not going to last," he murmured apologetically. "Kurt, _do _something. Please, anything, I'm so close."

"Think about this," Kurt purred in his ear, his lips so close and yet so far away from the lobe, his breath hot against Blaine's skin. "One day, it won't just be my hand on you up against a door. One day, it'll be on a bed. Hours and hours for me to explore and learn everything about your body. And you'll be able to do the same to me. And you'll kiss me everywhere, and I'll return the favour."

At the idea of Kurt's lips on his skin, dragging over every spot where he was most sensitive, Blaine buried his face in the crook of Kurt's neck and came with a shaky cry. His vision went white, then black.

He opened his eyes again blearily to soft, wet kisses against his cheek, a hand wrapped around his. "Are you okay?" Kurt asked softly, pulling back and looking at him with such concern that tears prick Blaine's eyes.

"Why'm I on the floor?" he asked stupidly. Kurt laughed softly, kissing him gently, his thumb rubbing reassuringly over the back of Blaine's hand.

"You blacked out on me, I wasn't strong enough to hold you up," he explained quickly. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head when I dropped you or anything?"

"No, I'm fine," Blaine replied, shaking his head to get rid of the ringing in his ears. "I'm wonderful, actually." He looked down between them. "Did you…get off?"

Kurt giggled - actually _giggled _- and kissed him again. "Yeah, I did, there's nothing for you to take care of," he said with laughter dancing in his slightly dazed eyes. "You're kind of…really, _really _hot when you come." Blaine laughed too, kissing him again, revelling in this newfound freedom to kiss wherever and whenever he wants. When Kurt pulled away, he grabbed a bundle from the floor beside them and tossed it at Blaine's chest. "I found your clothes, you dog. You can stay here tonight."

Blaine grinned, pulled his clothes on and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the back of Kurt's neck when Kurt helped him to his feet. Laughing, Kurt playfully pushed him away and headed for the bathroom.

As the door clicked shut, Blaine flopped down onto Kurt's bed, suddenly exhausted. The pillows smelt like him, clean and floral and sweet, and Blaine wrapped his arms around one. Sleep overwhelmed him, and he was under before Kurt even returned.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, and please let me know if you did! Bear in mind that this is not the end. Our boys still have a lot to work through, and this sex, if anything, only makes it more complicated. Kurt hasn't even been Marked yet.


	7. Part Seven

So I finished a basic map for the rest of this story, and there are only three chapters left, making ten parts in total. I hope this won't affect anybody's enjoyment of the fic! :)

* * *

Heart Puppeteer

Part Seven

Blaine awoke tangled up with Kurt, his feet like ice against his ankles, Kurt's arm thrown across his waist and Kurt's breath tickling the back of his neck. He rolled over carefully, so as not to disturb the sleeping boy, and propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at Kurt. He was so beautiful in sleep, all the anger and the hurt gone from his face, peaceful, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Wondering if Kurt knew how long his eyelashes looked with the weak morning light falling across his face, Blaine hoped with all his heart that he could be the cause of that sweet smile.

He steeled himself, wondering all the while why this seemed so hard, and dropped a kiss to Kurt's forehead. Kurt's eyes fluttered open, blinking blearily around before they fell on Blaine's face. Blaine smiled, framing Kurt's face with his hands and leaning down for a kiss. "Hi," he breathed, their lips inches apart.

Before Blaine could kiss him, however, Kurt turned his head to the side, away from him, the ghost of his sleeping smile fading away into a pinched, worried frown. "Don't," he murmured, pulling his arm from Blaine's waist, avoiding his eyes. "Don't kiss me. You can't."

"Of course I can," Blaine said, confused by Kurt's reaction, reaching out to lace their fingers together where one of Kurt's hands rested on his stomach. "After last night. Everything that happened. I can kiss you."

"Last night was…it was a mistake," Kurt said quietly, pushing Blaine's hand away, refusing to meet his eyes. "I shouldn't have done it, but then there was you and your ridiculous little seduction routine and I couldn't…but I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry. I can't be with you. Please go back to your room."

"Why was it a mistake?" Blaine asked, pursuing the issue, refusing to let Kurt slip from his fingertips yet again. "It wasn't a mistake. Not for me. You're my soulmate, Kurt, and I mean that figuratively as well as literally. I don't want to leave, and you don't want me to leave. What is so wrong about this that you refuse to see the good side of it?"

"It's your Mark, Blaine," Kurt murmured, sounding almost choked with emotion. Blaine reached out and took his hand again and, this time, he didn't pull away. "It scares me. It's my name and it means you're going to fall in love with me and want to marry me. I haven't been Marked yet, and what if it isn't your name? I can't be friends with you, I can't fall for you, because if you're not my soulmate then I'll lose you, and I couldn't take that."

"It doesn't mean we can't take advantage of what we can have here and now," Blaine said softly, sitting up and guiding Kurt with him. "I could still be your friend, Kurt, even if fate sent you off with someone else."

Kurt sniffed and kissed him, draping his arms around Blaine's shoulders, his grip tightening until it was almost painful. But Blaine didn't push him away, just kissed slow and sweet until Kurt broke away and buried his face in Blaine's shoulder, sniffling quietly into his shirt. "It'll be okay," Blaine reassured him softly. "Don't give up hope, ever. We'll figure something out. Like…are we going to be boyfriends now?"

"No, I'm not ready," Kurt said immediately. Blaine's hurt must've shown on his face because he hastily added, "Not that I don't want to, but I'd rather date you after I get Marked. Whenever that is. You'll wait for me, right?"

"Of course I will, you're my soulmate," Blaine promised. "So, in light of last night, what does that make us? Fuck buddies? Friends with benefits?"

"Ugh, I hate both those terms," Kurt groaned, shuddering. "It sounds so sleazy. Let's try just being friends. Just friends, not boyfriend, no benefits. I need to spend a little less time hating you and more time learning to like you."

"Deal, I'm going to be hanging around for a long, long time," Blaine said with a smile. He leaned in to kiss Kurt once more, but Kurt leaned away, chuckling softly to himself.

"Blaine. Just friends."

"I know, we just made a deal, and I'm sealing it with a kiss."

"Just friends means _no kissing_."

"Damn. This is going to be harder than I thought."

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, and please let me know if you did! And prepare for drama-llama as we wind this tale down.


	8. Part Eight

Heart Puppeteer

Part Eight

Blaine couldn't count the number of quizzical looks and perplexedly furrowed brows his friends shot his way over the next few days. And indeed it was strange, stranger still to him, that he was voluntarily spending so much time in the company of one Kurt Hummel, laughing with him and joking with him and smiling with him.

Gazing, soft-eyed, at him when he wasn't looking.

Sometimes he caught Kurt staring back. On those occasions he'd hide a smile until Kurt caught himself and hastily looked away, pretending to text or suddenly be very interested in his fingernails. But the best feeling was when he went to look and Kurt was already staring. When their eyes locked and Kurt's would glow with a smile, whether across a room or right in front of him. It never failed to make Blaine grin dizzily until something brought him back to reality.

The reality was that being friends knocked down certain barriers. Especially about touching and expression their affection for each other physically. While kissing and other sordid acts were off the table completely, it soon became common occurrence for Blaine to grab Kurt's hand if they were walking side by side, or for Kurt's hand to rest innocently on Blaine's lower thigh if they were sitting together, or for Blaine to play curiously with Kurt's hair when they studied together. On one delicious occasion, Kurt noticed Blaine was tense and insisted on giving him a massage that left Blaine practically purring and rolling over, attempting to tug Kurt down into a kiss.

Really, Blaine's major problem was not kissing Kurt. They'd made a deal and agreed to keep to the boundaries set out by the agreement, but on occasion he couldn't help himself. And, after a brief holiday from the constant sex dreams and inappropriate fantasies, they returned with a vengeance, only enhanced by the fact that now he knew how Kurt felt pressed against him, knew the sound of his soft groans like he knew his own heartbeat.

"I never really thought about how hard this would be," Kurt commented quietly one lazy night a week before Regionals as they lay in Blaine's room, the surprisingly bright moonlight shining through the window onto their bodies as they read choreography and vocal arrangements for the one finalised number. Contrary to the insistence of the other Warblers, the council hadn't decided whether Kurt or Blaine would be taking the solo in their performance, and were still torn between Kurt and Nick to lead one other number. Not that either Blaine or Kurt ever brought up the Warblers when they were alone, because the curse of that one solo spot still hung over their heads like a foreboding storm cloud.

"How hard what would be?" Blaine asked, looking up from the sheet of paper, speckled with spidery red writing where he'd corrected the arrangements a hundred times or more.

"Being friends with you, without additional benefits," Kurt answered, hiding his face in the paper when Blaine looked over at him with a knowing smirk. "Just, it's like…now I know what I can do to you, I keep wanting to do it. And it doesn't help that you keep touching at me and staring at me like the only thing you want to do is kiss me."

"Most of the time, that is all I want to do," Blaine confessed, wishing Kurt wasn't sitting so far away at his desk instead of on the bed so he could run his hand through Kurt's hair, grip onto the strands, tilt his head back for a long, slow kiss. "It's not my fault, it's the fact that I got Marked and it's part of nature to want more."

"But you got more," Kurt pointed out, perfectly fairly. "Last week, before we decided to just be friends."

"It wasn't enough," Blaine replied simply. "I still want more than that. And I'm sorry, it's nothing to you, I can take care of myself."

He dragged his eyes firmly back to the paper. He heard soft footsteps, the bed dipped and a hand was spread wide over his back, warm and solid and supporting. "One kiss," Kurt whispered, his voice distractingly close to Blaine's ear. "Just one kiss."

Blaine smiled and turned around, hands rising to stroke at Kurt's hair as their mouths met, moving slow and sweet together, sending his heart racing and his breath catching in his throat. Before either of them could catch their breath, put a halt to it, Blaine was pushing the blazer from Kurt's shoulder, little frustrated noises issuing from his lips when he couldn't pull the sleeves from Kurt's wrists, his hands being busy with working frantically at the buttons of Blaine's shirt.

"Kurt, stop," Blaine managed to say, head arching back when Kurt pressed loud, wet kisses to his neck before he came to his senses and scrambled away up the bed, breathing heavy. "This isn't what you want."

"I know, I'm sorry, that got out of hand," Kurt said, a little breathless in a way that really does not help Blaine in his mission to cool down. "Will you stay here tonight? We can just cuddle. I just…I need someone to hold me."

"What's wrong?" Blaine asked softly, pushing the papers off the bed, crossing the room to draw the curtains and locking his door tight. "Will you tell me?"

Kurt lay down next to him, dragging Blaine's arm around him and holding his hand tightly. He sighed heavily and murmured, "Nine years ago tonight, my…my mum died. I wasn't even eight yet, I was a baby. I didn't understand where she'd gone. They told me she just went to sleep. But my dad was crying and I didn't understand, because he loved sleep. Then they told me she wasn't coming back. They said she went to live with the angels." Blaine's heart twisted with sadness as he realised Kurt was crying, turning over to face him, pulling himself closer and closer. "I'm sorry, I miss her all the time and I try to be strong about it for my dad but sometimes I just…"

"Shush, don't worry about it," Blaine breathed, bringing Kurt in close, wrapping his arms around him and holding him tight. "It's okay to feel sad. You can cry it all out right now. I won't let go until you feel better, I promise."

They fall asleep like that, tangled together, still fully-clothed, Kurt's face buried in Blaine's shoulder and Blaine holding him close, only to be roused in the early hours of the morning by a blaring fire alarm. Kurt shrieked in surprise and ran out of bed, jiggling the bolt frantically until it clicked open and they joined the lines of pyjama-clad, bleary-eyed boys heading outside.

"What kind of sadistic person schedules a fire drill at three in morning in the middle of freezing cold March?" Jeff complained, shivering and nudging into Nick's side. "It's so _cold_. You two are lucky, at least you've got blazers."

Kurt smiled at Blaine and leant his head against his shoulder while the teachers call out names and look for the boys, standing in their thick coats and scarves and boots while the students shiver and grumble.

Standing in the pale moonlight in the middle of the night, their breath hanging like frosted cobwebs on the air in front of them, Kurt warm against his side and smiling for all the world to see, bathed in the silvery beams and ethereally beautiful, Blaine was suddenly kneed in the stomach by longing, by need and want and passion and something warm spreading out from his heart, radiating through his limbs and tingling in his fingers and thighs, making him smile goofily, his eyes wet, the tips of his ears read.

It felt like falling in love.

* * *

You may now all fall to the ground in praise. Two more chapters left after this! And next chapter we'll be hitting up Regionals :)


	9. Part Nine

Heart Puppeteer

Part Nine

Blaine couldn't stop thinking those words. They were a constant backdrop to the monochrome of his everyday life, vibrant and bright and shining like a beacon in his mind. They were the beat of his heart, the tick of the clock, the tapping of a pencil against paper, the dulled words of his friends, the echo of a pulse in his ears.

_I'm in love with you_.

He even tried saying it to his mirror, quietly so no one heard him. He looked up into his own eyes, the glass reflecting uncertainty and apprehension and nerves back at him, and softly said, "Kurt Hummel, I'm in love with you."

How could he say it? To Kurt, to his soulmate. Having broken his heart so many times he'd stopped keeping track, Kurt had built him back up again with little smiles and private jokes and a hand on his side to guide him through crowds. Memories circled through his mind, of laughing and grinning and kissing, of slowly falling for a beautiful man until it was too late to pull himself back.

Sitting in the choir room, surrounded by tired, grumbling boys with Wes smacking his gavel down to halt the murmurs and speaking in sharp tones to those who stared unfocused at the front of the room, Blaine looked at Kurt, sitting apart from him, head lowered to look at his hands clasped in his lap, almost as if he was praying. Blaine sat in reverent silence, wondering if Kurt knew how beautiful he looked with his eyelashes brushing his cheeks, the light reflecting off them, a strand of hair hanging over his forehead making him look so much younger.

And all he could think, calling out the words into the air and hoping Kurt might somehow hear him, was: _I'm in love with you_.

"Warbler Blaine, Warbler Kurt, we've reached our final decision on which of you shall lead at Regionals," Wes announced grandly, fixing his gaze on Kurt. "Will the two of you please step forward?"

Blaine saw the way Kurt shook, subtle tremors across his arms and legs and torso, as they stood before the council table. He looked at Kurt, ached to reach out and take his hand in reassurance, whisper into the whorls of his ear that he was perfect and talented and he deserved this solo. Because he did, he deserved this solo and so many more. Blaine was stale now, his voice used up to the boundaries of its talent, but Kurt…Kurt was new and fresh and more special than the rest of the Warblers combined, unique and perfect and to be cherished.

"Blaine," Wes began in his slow, steady, authoritative voice, "we want to give you the opportunity to…"

"No," Blaine said. He ignored Wes' shocked and slightly offended gaze, instead turning to Kurt and smiling briefly before saying, "I want Kurt to sing the solo. I'm already leading _Misery_. I want him to sing."

"Warbler Kurt, do you have any objections to this?" David finally asked after a long, tense silence. "Any comment at all?"

"Um…I…thank you for the opportunity," Kurt said slowly, his eyes on Blaine. "I guess, if I'm leading…please let Nick lead _Raise Your Glass_." Nick grinned happily from his seat and Jeff kissed his cheek affectionately. Blaine watched, envy spearing him, wishing he could have that kind of affection and intimacy and pure shining love with someone. With Kurt.

"Of course," Wes finally spoke, his voice still a little shocked and uncertain. "So, it's settled. Blaine will lead _Misery_, Kurt will have his solo with _Blackbird_, and Nick will lead _Raise Your Glass_. Rehearsal tonight at seven thirty sharp. Warblers dismissed."

Blaine counted five steps away from the choir room, hooking his bag more firmly over his shoulder, before he heard a shout of, "Blaine!" There were familiar footsteps on the floor behind him and a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back. He turned to see Kurt, his face uncertain and worried, biting his lip as he dropped his gaze from Blaine's. "Why did you do it? Why did you give up the solo? They were going to give it to you, everyone knows they were. Why did you make them give it to me?"

"Because you're a star, Kurt, and you deserve so much better than singing back-up to me," Blaine said softly, placing three fingers beneath Kurt's chin, where he can feel his frantically fluttering pulse, and raising his face so they can look into each other's eyes. "I'm a tired act now, I've been wheeled out to charm and be adored too many times. You're new, you're special, you're more talented than the rest of us put together. And I know this will make you happy, and I want to see that, Kurt. I want to see it because…I'm in love with you."

He kissed Kurt once, a gentle closed-mouth peck, Kurt so shocked he didn't even begin to kiss back before Blaine pulled away. It felt so much like a goodbye, and Blaine wished it didn't, but it had to. Inexplicably, this was him saying goodbye, ready to stand back and watch Kurt take over the world beneath the spotlight while he faded into shadows.

"Blaine…you…I…"

"You should practice." Blaine smiled slightly, tears prickling his eyes for some unknown reason, and turned away before he broke down in Kurt's arms.

* * *

Regionals was busy and bright and bustling, filled with hundreds of people, whether audience or show choir competitors. Blaine filed along at the back of the group, smiling when a couple of shrieking, overexcited girls in blue dresses attacked Kurt before they reached the dressing room, screeching about how much they missed him and they'd heard about his solo and to break a leg. He watched the smile on Kurt's face grow when the pretty Asian girl tackled him in an overenthusiastic hug, watched him accept a kiss on the cheek from the blonde before an incredibly tall boy joined them and actually lifted Kurt off his feet hugging him, and he couldn't help thinking that that was the world where Kurt belonged. He didn't belong at Dalton, not with the Warblers and certainly not with Blaine. He belonged at McKinley, with his friends who adored him and who he loved beyond anything Blaine could ever imagine.

The not at all stupidly-named Aural Intensity, as everyone had taken to calling them since watching videos of last year's Regionals, went first, singing a shameless pander to the judges about Jesus. Nick rocked back and forth in nervous hysteria until Jeff shook his head fondly and spirited him away to calm him down. Blaine watched Kurt, his lip curled in distaste, and thought how true the words he was about to sing resonated within his soul.

"Five minutes!" Wes called as the choir left the stage. Nerves buzzed in anticipation, ties were adjusted and Wes flew around the group, admonishing for less than perfect appearances and checking everyone was ready to perform.

"Has anyone ever literally died on stage?" Blaine heard Kurt ask, and looked over to see him sitting on the sofa, hands trapped between his knees and talking to a sympathetic Trent.

"You don't need to be nervous," Trent assured him bracingly. "You're really great and we've practised this so often everyone could probably do it asleep and hanging upside-down from the ceiling."

"I know, I've just never really sung a solo in front of such a huge audience before," Kurt said, a slight laugh in his words. "How do people do it without fainting?"

"Don't look at the audience, just look at the wall," Trent advised. Blaine privately scoffed - what did Trent know about solos? - and immediately felt guilty for doing so. "And don't worry, we're all backing you up."

They assembled on the stage, ready for Blaine to open with a hopefully show-stopping rendition of _Misery_, accompanied by lively dancing and show smiles on everyone's faces. The announcement came, the curtains opened and Blaine went through the motions of performance, but it was all a blur. He knew he wouldn't remember such things afterwards, anything other than seeing Kurt's face as he danced past him, seeing the look in his eyes like he wanted to kiss him right there and then. And he had to push away the urge to do so and finish the song before stepping aside to let Kurt take the stage.

Everyone was whooping excitedly as they left the stage, but Blaine couldn't focus on anything but for the sheer haunting beauty of Kurt's voice as it swept towards the roof, breaking a hundred hearts but healing his. He was in love, there was no denying it, and he wouldn't change one moment for the entire world.

A hand curled around his tie and he only had a moment to look up in panic before a deliciously familiar mouth was on his, cool hands running across his shoulders and up his neck to hold his face, fingers spread possessively from chin to temple, holding him close and leaving him powerless to do anything other than take the kiss and kiss back, even if he'd wanted to escape, which he never, never wanted to do. He could stay here, in this moment, forever, being held by Kurt and kissing him in the darkened wings, the light from the stage ready for the next performance dappling Kurt's face when he pulled away, the slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth Blaine's whole world.

"I love you, Blaine," Kurt whispered. "I love you, and nothing else matters to me because you are all I want. I don't care about anything else, but I have _nothing _if I don't have you."

"Kurt, slow down," Blaine murmured, though his heart was singing and his head with spinning with Kurt's whispers that he loved him, that Kurt cared, that Kurt wanted to be with him, that Kurt honestly thought nothing else in his world could compare to having Blaine. "What's brought this on?"

Kurt pulled back slowly, heartbreakingly silent, his eyes downcast. "I haven't looked yet, I don't want to, I'm scared, because what if…" He met Blaine's eyes and murmured, "Blaine, I got my Mark."

* * *

Next chapter is the last one, and it's going to be a long one. It'll definitely be up before the end of this week.

Hope you enjoyed and, if you did, please let me know! :)


	10. Part Ten

Heart Puppeteer

Part Ten

The group trailed morosely back into Dalton, Wes and David carrying the second place trophy between them and debating what could've been done, demanding a post-performance review to determine why they hadn't brought home the first place trophy.

"Can we do it tomorrow, Wes?" Nick asked, leaning exhaustedly against Jeff. "Today, well, this whole week has been a bit nuts and we're all tired. I want my bed."

"Fine," Wes conceded, "but I expect every single one of you in the choir room tomorrow morning at eight o'clock sharp."

"Eight?!" Nick shrieked in horror, but, rather than complain about the absurd earliness of the meeting, the group simply ran for the stairs and their rooms, before Wes changed his mind.

Kurt turned to Blaine, eyes wide and glassy with unshed tears, as they reached the door to his room and Blaine started to release his hand. "Don't leave," he murmured. "If it…if it's not your name-"

"Don't think about that right now," Blaine interrupted, squeezing Kurt's hand tightly and trying not to consider the horrific possibility. "We'll see the name now, in your room, and we can cross that obstacle if we come to it."

Kurt's hand shook violently where it was entwined with Blaine's as he opened the door slowly, illuminating the room and the bed where they'd lain together not so long ago, breathing heavy, the ghosts of each other's names dying on their lips. "I love you," Kurt whispered, meeting Blaine's eyes as Blaine sat down on the bed, nervous beyond anything he'd ever felt before, trying so desperately not to think of what could be coming.

"I love you," Blaine replied softly, tilting his head up for a slow kiss. "Go on, check. Who is it?"

Kurt managed a small smile and turned to his mirror, untucking his shirt and pulling it up to expose his right hip. Blaine heard a sharp intake of breath and Kurt turned slowly back to him, eyes filled with tears. "Kurt? Who is it?"

"It's you." The whispered words were possibly, maybe, certainly the most beautiful Blaine had ever heard. "Blaine…it's you. You're my soulmate."

Blaine finally let out the breath he'd been unconsciously holding. He stepped forward and dropped to his knees in front of Kurt, running his fingers wonderingly across the dark shapes of his own name against Kurt's skin, feeling Kurt shake and looking proudly up at him, smiling brightly. "Oh God, Kurt, I…I just love you. I love you so much. You're my _soulmate_."

"Yes, yes I am," Kurt whispered happily, eyes shining with happiness. "And you're my soulmate. We're soulmates." He breathed in shakily, squeezing Blaine's hands tightly where it rested on his hip. "I was so scared. I thought it wasn't going to be you. I thought-"

"Shush, I'm here, it was always going to be me," Blaine murmured, getting to his feet and smiling into Kurt's eyes. "Just like it was always going to be you. We were destined for each other, Kurt. I'm going to love you for the rest of my life."

"I love you." Neither of them could be quite sure who moved first, but they were instantly kissing, feverish and needy, wrapped up in each other, toeing off shoes and catching fingers in belts and buttonholes as they staggered towards Kurt's bed, collapsing into it with Kurt beneath Blaine, pushing blazers from shoulders and flinging the garments aside, clutching desperately at each other as they rolled over and over, tangled together so completely it could be permanent, each feeling like they were finally coming home.

"Is this okay?" Blaine asked nervously, undoing the first few buttons of Kurt's shirt and sliding his hand inside, finding so much soft, warm skin that he wanted to hold and sustain and cherish.

"More than okay," Kurt promised, breath hitching and a high, broken whimper escaping him when Blaine's fingers found his nipple. "Ohh, Blaine, _please_. I want you so bad."

"I love you. And I respect you. Are you sure this is what you want?" Blaine couldn't help the uncertainty creeping into his voice after everything that had happened in the space of such a short month. "Because I…really, I've been ready since I got Marked, but if you're not- _oh_." He abruptly cut himself off when Kurt's lip twitched in a shaking, nervous smile and he tentatively took Blaine by the wrist, guiding his hand down to rest on his crotch, sighing as Blaine bit his lip and cupped his through the grey material. Intoxicated by the feel of Kurt, hard beneath his fingers, hard for him, Blaine squeezed and heard Kurt moan above him, looking up from the hypnotizing sight of his hand resting on the bulge in Kurt's trousers to see Kurt's eyelids fluttering, his mouth hanging open as he panted towards the ceiling, two spots of colour high in his cheeks.

"D-don't stop," he groaned, hips canting upwards into Blaine's hand. "Oh God, I - _ah _- I'm starting to see why you f-fainted when I did this to you." Blaine watched, mesmerized, as Kurt writhed on the bed for him, mouth working desperately around broken gasps and wanton moans.

"Kurt…you're beautiful," Blaine whispered, quickly unbuttoning Kurt's shirt, pushing the material away from his body and sweeping it aside and off the bed without a second thought before returning to kissing Kurt hard, climbing on top of him and pressing him down into the bed.

"Why did you stop?" Kurt whined, his arms strong around Blaine as they rocked together, slow and steady and making solid heat press in from all sides. "Don't stop, I said it, don't ever stop touching me."

No sooner did Blaine have his hand on Kurt again, their tongues twisting together, than Kurt cried out, burying his face in Blaine's neck as he came, shaking violently, his fingers digging painfully into Blaine's back. Blaine held him close, achingly intimate, as he slowly came down, pulling back to smile dizzily at Blaine. "Wow," he breathed, voice ragged and low.

"Wow indeed," Blaine said with a smirk, brushing a lock of hair back from Kurt's sweaty forehead. "Do you want me to go back to my room now?"

"But you didn't…I was the only one who…um, you know what I mean," Kurt fumbled, ducking his head in embarrassment. "Wait…did you?"

"Turns out you are also really, really hot when you come," Blaine said with a shrug, happily watching the way the blush of pleasure spread up Kurt's face and how his smile grew with joy. "Much hotter than me, I'm sure."

"Oh, I don't know," Kurt teased. "I think I'd need to do a little more experimentation to figure out that conclusion." He plucked at the grey material stretched over Blaine's knee. "These should come off. Everything should come off."

Blaine grinned and kissed Kurt once more, fiddling with his belt buckle, their arms bumping awkwardly as Kurt tried to unbutton his shirt simultaneously, resulting in dissolving tension as their breathless laughter filled the room, smiling into each other's eyes and separating to undress before joining together again, breathing against flushed skin as quivering bodies met, a rhythm of pounding heartbeats and cracked moans echoing from wall to wall.

When Kurt finally gained the courage to give Blaine what every inch of his being craved and cried out for in tremulous tones, Blaine held tight to Kurt's hips, jerking violently against him when Kurt's fingers curved inside him for the first time, perfectly fitted to him, like they belonged there, so intimate and perfectly hot. "B-Blaine, I…l-love…Blaine, y-you-"

"I - _oh _- love you too." Fighting against the urge to close his eyes and fall into the feel of Kurt, twisting and scissoring and stretching and _so right_ inside him, Blaine reached up to pet at Kurt's hair, tangling his fingers through the thick strands and pulling him down into a kiss, all hot passion and pent-up need and lustful want. "I love you so much. I _want _you so, so much."

"You feel so good." Kurt's whisper was in a voice rough and low, his eyes dark when Blaine met them, burning with some deep, animal heat that made Blaine's stomach twist up with delicious, nervous anticipation. "You're so beautiful. You're sexy, and you make me feel sexy. I'm going to try and make this so good for you."

"This is going to be over embarrassingly quickly," Blaine admitted softly as Kurt retracted his fingers and fumbled for a condom and lube, blushing at Blaine's gaze searing hot on him.

"It doesn't matter," Kurt reassured him, reaching out a hand to smooth along his thigh in a gesture of comfort so intimate it stole the breath from Blaine's lungs. "We're young and we're impatient, and we have all the time in the world to practice."

Blaine smiled at Kurt's reassurance, glad to have him and have this perfect moment, those walls of heat pressing in around them again as Kurt swayed above him, his hands planted either side of Blaine's head, looking down at him concernedly. "Are you ready?" he asked softly.

"For you? Always," Blaine promised, hand gliding up Kurt's right side, pausing to caress his thumb across his name on Kurt's hip. "I love you. You're not going to do anything wrong."

"Mm, tell that to the nervous newly-Marked virgin with an amazingly hot boyfriend," Kurt muttered, more to himself than to Blaine. "Oh God, sorry, I shouldn't have assumed. Will you be my boyfriend?"

Despite trying to stop himself, Blaine burst out laughing. Kurt looked so hurt he immediately felt awful and silenced his snorts, assuring him, "No, it's not you, I promise. It's just such a strange time to ask, but of course I'll be your boyfriend. Yes please."

Kurt grinned and lowered his head to press a long, slow kiss to Blaine's lips, a slow burn of passion growing and growing between them, crawling its way beneath their skin as the blunt pressure of Kurt's cock pressed at Blaine's hole, almost seeming for a moment as if it wouldn't fit until Kurt pushed in, inch by agonising inch until he was fully-sheathed, both of them trembling all the while, pressed perfectly together in all the most intimate of ways, two puzzle pieces slotting into each other without a hitch, sensations so intense they couldn't be real rushing through them all at once, assaulting their senses and leaving them with spinning heads and pounding hearts.

"K-Kurt…you feel so good," Blaine gasped, his words trailing off into soft moans as Kurt moved shallowly inside him, watching over him to make sure nothing hurt him, so concerned and so gentle and so loving it made Blaine's chest ache with love. "It's like…like our bodies were made to fit together."

"What's it like?" Kurt asked curiously, hands tracing down Blaine's arms, following the discernible veins running beneath his skin. "How does it feel? Am I doing anything wrong?"

"You couldn't be doing anything more right," Blaine assured him. "You feel…so _amazing_. You're filling me up, and you're big but not too big, it's like…you fit exactly to me. You feel perfect. What - _oh _- what's it like for you?"

"T-tight," Kurt stammered, his hips thrusting hard forward, apparently of their own accord, and making Blaine stutter out a cry, hands twisting in the sheets and toes curling into the mattress. "Warm. Perfect. But I wish…I wish I could just feel you."

"One day," Blaine promised, trying to concentrate on correctly articulating the words and not melting into Kurt and the promise of smooth, flawless, wanting flesh to mark up and make his. "One day, we'll just feel each other. We'll have that time."

The unspoken words - _not today, today I just want it fast and hot _- hung in the air between them. Kurt apparently heard the unspoken plea, his hips snapping forward and back faster and faster, kissing Blaine sloppily with too much tongue and teeth to muffle his cries of intense pleasure, the slap of skin on skin echoing hotly around the room, the bed creaking like an ancient wooden boat in a thunderstorm, the headboard clattering violently against the wall until finally Kurt tore his mouth from Blaine's, burying his head in Blaine's neck and biting into the juncture between neck and shoulder to muffle his scream of Blaine's name as he came, Blaine following not a second later with a shout, coming so hard his vision went pure white for a moment.

Kurt moved slowly, sluggish with afterglow, disappearing temporarily to his bathroom and returning with a dampened washcloth, slowly cleaning Blaine off, intimate and tender, and shooing him out of the bed to change the sheets. "I'll have to figure out a way to wash those myself, because there's no way I'm getting them to housekeeping without being so embarrassed I crawl into a hole and die," he murmured as he tugged Blaine back into bed, lying close to him with the duvet tugged back around their hips, smiling dopily at him.

"Oh please, the mess is mostly my fault," Blaine scoffed happily, reaching out to gently caress Kurt's cheek. "I don't know how to thank you. For loving me, for letting me be yours, for giving me this chance to be with you, for being so perfect in bed no matter what you might think."

"I think you're flattering me far too much," Kurt giggled quietly, clearly giddy in the aftermath of their intense, amazing orgasms. "You're not so bad yourself, boyfriend."

They lay in the quiet for a while, Kurt doodling random words into Blaine's chest, the slow sound of their matched breathing the only noise in the comfortable silence. "Do you think," Kurt said softly, "if we lived in a world where people weren't Marked, and they had to figure out who their soulmate was for themselves, we'd still have found each other?"

"Kurt, this, what we have," Blaine laced their fingers together, pressing their palms close, touching and feeling and tasting with the tips of their fingers, "this is so much more than the names on our skin. Did you know, a lot of people only ever end up being friends with their soulmates? It's still a deeper emotional connection than anything else they'll ever know, but they can fall in love with other people and remain utterly platonic with their soulmate. It happened to my father, his soulmate is actually my godmother but they're just close friends. Us, falling for each other, being in love, this doesn't just happen for everyone. It's more than just me, and it's even more than you. It's _us_, and we would've met no matter the world we lived in. It might've been in college, or at a bakery or in a café or a park or a gym, or even somewhere perfectly average like a staircase, but we would've found each other and fallen in love just the same way we have now."

"God, I love you, you hopelessly romantic dork," Kurt sighed happily, kissing his temple and curling even closer, half-lying across Blaine's chest. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," Blaine replied simply, curving an arm around Kurt's waist and almost melting into the warmth of his body as they kissed.

"So what happens now?" Kurt asked as they parted, the dull light of uncertainty in his eyes again. "I mean, obviously we're together, and we're soulmates. But what happens if I transfer back to McKinley? Senior year? College? Adult life? Marriage and maybe children? Will we manage to stay together and make everything work? What do _you _want from this relationship?"

"I want your love," Blaine answered truthfully, stripped bare of his inhibitions and his worries, simply a boy, basking in love. He rolled over to suspend himself above Kurt, smiling down at his beautiful soulmate. "It's all I'll ever want, now and forever."

"Then take my love," Kurt murmured, his body rising to meet Blaine's.

* * *

It's over. It's been quite a ride. Thank you to all my lovely readers and reviewers, and thank you for enjoying my tale.

Hope you enjoyed this final installment, and please let me know if you did! :)


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